February 21, 2014
A Safe Place
Our local library recently
organized a woman’s writing group for the purpose of encouraging one another to
know themselves and the world through their writing. “It will be a safe place
to express themselves, without judgment, critiquing, or negativity.” There are
those who would like the church to be just such a “safe place”; a panacea
of sorts. However, Paul reminds us that with great patience and careful
instruction we are to always to be prepared to correct, rebuke and encourage. “For
the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to
suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers
to say what their itching ears want to hear.” (2 Tim 4:3 NIV)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Gail;
-----All men are false (Rom 3:4,) “…they are all alike depraved; there is none that does good, no, not one.” (Ps 53:3) “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.” (Eccl 7:20) No wonder we feel safe in places where there is no criticism. But securing such a place is too simple to solve the expressive needs of these ladies. Or most any other problem. For in a complicated world, no solution can be purely simple.
-----Everything is a part of a bigger whole. So too, everything is a bigger whole having smaller parts. Even the smaller parts are bigger wholes having yet smaller parts, and bigger wholes are indeed just smaller parts of things more vast. A boulder is a bigger whole made of smaller compounds being bigger wholes made of atoms, etc. Yet it is a smaller part of the bigger earth being a smaller part of the great solar system, a speck of the Milky Way, which itself is but a piece of just one galactic system. Everything is a smaller part of a bigger whole.
-----Ideas, thoughts, attitudes, feelings and the myriads of parts and pieces making your consciousness and subconscious alike are smaller parts of bigger wholes intertwined with the same intricate complexity as that of the more physical world. We indeed are marvelously made in both body and mind. Moreover, wouldn’t you know, a person made of this complexity of smaller mental parts is a smaller part of social groups being smaller parts of bigger movements being smaller parts of cultures, etc.
-----And not one piece or whole of this universe is without error, often egregiously destructive error that pollutes, twists, or crushes everything it touches. Nor is any piece without at least a grain of truth, or sometimes even being mostly true, cleansing, straightening, and constructive. This is what I mean when I often say this existence or anything of it is a giant shake-bag all full of good and evil both.
-----It is because we’ve inclined our hearts to what’s right that we call on Jesus to be made that way, and so are seen by God as being that way. But it doesn’t make us much less the shake-bag. We’ve still got pieces and parts which we think are hunky-dory full of glory that others see through less bias perspectives as stuff best buried in the cat box.
-----Char and I watched “Run” last night, a really good movie (but for a bit more than the usual lascivious overdoing) about the Formula I racing rivalry between Laudo and Hunt. Both were obnoxious. Laudo struck me as being slightly a savant. His head was car. Everything he saw evoked a true correction from the perspective of his genius. Though he did so without scorn, he also did so without empathy. Yet he is the kind of friend I like, even though his edifying strokes came like a rasp file, they cut at what did need to go.
-----My safety is not in the absence of either criticism or negativity. It is in carefully thinking those through to extract from their shake-bags the good parts helpful to my improvement in the same ways of goodness the Lord has been causing to emerge from the better of my parts. In fact, the more someone tries to anesthetize their criticisms of me, the more difficult it is for me to find the good they’re trying to do me.
-----So, ladies, as far as I’m concerned, I will feel more safe in the environment of well practiced criticism and negativity, thank you very much.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
Steve,
I love your illustrations of anesthetized and practiced criticism and they are an encouragement to me.
Gail
Thank you, Gail.
Post a Comment